Vintage Score # 32 or Crazy Mixer Lady

Once upon a time, several months back I saw a vintage Kitchen Aid bowl made of glass in it's original box for $35 at a flea market. I've lusted after the glass bowl mixers ever since! I wasn't going to be happy with a Sunbeam or Hamilton Beach model, no, I needed a REAL Kitchen Aid.

Things went along that way for a bit until one day a few weeks ago. I spotted this baby on a shelf at one of my fav thrifty stops in town and nearly screamed and hopped up and down. I managed to control myself and snatched it up and got outta there before they decided that the $15 price tag was too little to charge.

I seem to have evolved into "Crazy Mixer Lady" as I now own 3 Kitchen Aid stand mixers. But hey, come on, that one I picked up at the yard sale this summer was only $5 and needs a little TLC and maybe $25 worth of parts. Plus, they are all from different eras. One really old, one kinda old and a brand new one. Can you blame me, really? Once I get my shelves in place they will all have their own places to be displayed and we'll live happily ever after...until I find another one! HA!

As I look adoringly at my mixers I am considering breaking out the spray paint. These 2 white mixers could be jazzed up with some vintage-esque paint jobs. My kitchen is blue so a few varying blue colors might be fun, right? I mean, it's not like I plan to sell these treasures or anything so why shouldn't I have some fun with'em?

As Advertised In Life Magazine

I just had to share one of my vintage finds from today. This is a Christmas tree star in it's original box. The original price is marked $1.39 in grease pencil. How cool is this?? My favorite part is the little piece of text that lets you know that this star was advertised in LIFE magazine. I'm assuming that this is an item from the 50's when everyone read Life on a regular basis. I can't wait to get it on the tree and plugged in!

Aiming For Holiday Cheer

Be Cheerful! It's what I keep telling myself these days. I need reminding that I do have much to be grateful for, even if it seems otherwise.

It's hard to be cheerful when I don't feel very well. I didn't even really cheer up for Halloween, which is my FAV holiday. Anyway, I have been diagnosed with a disease which I've suspected for quite a long time. Being a mom, I take care of everyone else and put myself last and now I learn that I shouldn't have done that.

The only thing to do now is follow the treatment and get on with taking care of myself. I was about to say "better care" but that would imply that I'd been taking some measure of care for myself when I hadn't been doing anything of the sort. I'm not a whiner/complainer and I don't want to sound like one now. I just wanted to give people a reason why I seem to be green around the gills. It's because I AM green around the gills. And exhausted. I'm still debating on whether or not to blog about this thing regularly.


Moving on...

See that pic up there at the top?? Yeah, I knew you did.

I found that green felt table runner with the Santa Clause applique at the thrift store today. (It's very long, which seemed unusual to me.) My girls are into all things retro these days and instantly loved it when I brought it home. I had originally believed it was a tree skirt, but a table runner is cool, too. The tree with the lights and ribbon was also a thrifty find today. Not too bad for $3, is it?

I also dragged home a set of lighted ceramic cherub ornaments and some shabby pink glass ball ornaments. We plan to make a wreath with the glass balls and we're not sure yet what we'll do with the cherubs. Maybe we'll mix them with some garland greenery?? See?? I'm making an effort to be cheerful!

Now, I need to run and do my Thanksgiving shopping. I'm out of everything in this house and it shows. My list is a mile long so I better get going! Catch ya all later!

Halloween has left us again...

I must admit that I had a hard time getting into Halloween this year. I just felt like it came up quicker than I could get ready. I am blessed with kids who are easily satisfied when it comes to trick or treating. In total we only went 4 blocks and then the boys were ready to go home and check out their scores. All in all it was pretty easy and over in no time!

The best treat the kids were given were $10 gift cards from a friend of ours. They were way happier with that than anything else and I don't blame them. I'm including some pics we took last night just for fun.




A pic of our 2 Vampires, a Werewolf and a denim clad "Greaser". Thanks to S.E. Hinton for the inspiration of her Outsiders book.

Brains! Brains!

YES! You can enjoy brains for breakfast! $4.99 sounds like a deal, too.


One of the restaurants in town had this sign up and I just had to snap a pic to show everyone. I must admit that puts me off of breakfast. I have more than enough issues when it comes to food and I don't really need to be imaging what the mysterious grey tubes and flappy things on my plate really are. EW. Um, ok. I don't think I'll ever eat again.

I really love thrift stores...

and I can't imagine my life without them. There is a thrift store in town which is only open 3 days a week. I have taken quite a liking to this store. Friday night I knew I had to go and see if they had my Williams Sonoma ebelskiver pan.

I've been lusting after this pan for about a year now. I had a funny feeling and I felt compelled to check. I went with my mom and my hubs on Sat. and what did I find?? YES! My Williams Sonoma pan!!! I was freaking out in the aisle bobbing up and down and making squealy noises. My poor hubs thought I'd lost my mind! This is like my thrifty find of the month because I only paid $10 for it.

Anyway, if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, just check out this pic from Williams Sonoma. How cool is that??? Oh yeah, the Williams Sonoma website has videos showing how to use the pan so you can have a look at that, too.

Play Dough Recipes

Someone on a message board posted a link to a page full of recipes to make your own play dough. Last night I finally broke down and looked up a recipe and made a large ball of blue tinted squidgey stuff.

That has to be the best use of 10 minutes of my time EVER. Once the goo went onto the table I didn't hear much from the boys at all. I'm thinking that the person who put this page of recipes together is a genius! Check out the link and see what you can come up with.




My little guy decided to make a Crabby Patty. He was convinced that it looked very tasty.

Our Evil Neighbor: Community ALERT

The day we moved into this little cottage, we unwittingly began a war with one the neighbors. This guy went out his mind and had a complete psychotic break when I accidentally startled him. He threw stuff us and screamed for 30 minutes all the while doing his best to intimidate us. I was so shocked that all I could do was stand and stare at him. Finally, I'd made up my mind that he was just a special kind of freak and we should ignore him. Well, that is to say that I did my best to ignore him until he decided to pee on my laundry when I hung it out on the clothes line. He did this several times. The final straw was when he climbed a tree and whizzed on my daughter's head.

This horrible neighbor of ours seems to be on some kind of extended vacation. I haven't seen him a while. Maybe he's in jail?? I think it's too much to hope that he's dead or permanently incapacitated. I am fully prepared to do battle with this hairy jerk. I'm including a photo of him so that the entire community can be warned of his mental instability and avoid him at all costs. Please be aware that he often uses foul language in the form of high pitched peeps, squeaks and excessive chittering. He is also often armed with blunt objects in the shape of acorns and walnuts. Local citizens should use caution when outdoors.


Because I couldn't get an accurate photo of my neighbor I've had to use one of his twin. Courtesy of:

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You know you're in the Great Frozen North when...

The town parade takes place even though it's only 27 degrees out and snow flurries are expected. Friday night we had the first snow fall. Yes, we've sort of skipped the slow cooling and went right to the frozen part of the year-which is a bummer. Our leaves are still green on Main St. for goodness sake. I was looking forward to the leaves changing color but now I'm not sure what will happen. I took some pics at the parade saturday morning. Our university was celebrating homecoming. YAY! We stayed as long as we could until the boys hands were too cold to make dashes into the street for more candy.





Our 2 frozen boys awaiting the start of the parade festivities.


A photo of Main St. showing a smallish portion of the turn out.


This would be the USD Marching Coyotes. I felt bad for the poor mostly frozen baton girl in front. I hope she thawed out ok.

The Farmers Market

This is one of a couple of pumpkins we picked up at the local farmers market. We're on a pumpkin kick over here because they're all over these days. How can anyone pass up this beautiful red pumpkin? I couldn't do it so it came home with me. I've since roasted 3 small pumpkins and the flavor is absolutely amazing.

All I did was chop them up-leaving the skins on and then brush on some olive oil and shake on salt and pepper. Roast the pieces skin side down in the oven until done which can take 30-60 minutes depending on how ginormous you chop your pieces. Once the pieces cool you can peel off the skins and use the flesh any way you like.

I used my roasted pumpkin chunks in Succotash Saturday night. The kids ate the roasted seeds and stole hot pumpkin chunks off the trays. I have enough left to take a run at making a soup. I'll let you know if it works out.





This is a little pic that makes me wish we had "smell-o-vision" or something so everyone could get a whiff of scent of roasted pumpkin. YUM!

One other item we picked up at the market was butternut squash. I've seen butternut squash at the grocery store recently for $1.59 per pound. Our seller at the market sold us the squash for 50 cents per pound. Yeah, the huge difference in price is crazy. Our market runs through the month of October so we'll be sure to hit it every Thursday to stock up on these veggies to put in the basement.

The Homestead

So we've moved again. This time we have a little bit of country in town. The kids are happy here in this little college town. Most of it comes from being able to walk anywhere in town in 20 minutes or so. We've taken some pics to share of our new little spot.


This is Nye chasing the cat. You know, total action shot.


My rhubarb patch behind the shed.


The girls hit a yard sale this summer that was selling many vintage dresses. These are the dresses drying on the line out back.



This is our cat. His name is Waterhead. Yes, really.


Lock took this pic of the shed window. We like the pic (and the window) and have plans to put a carved pumpkin in it to make it spooky!

I'll be posting again about our E.V.I.L. "neighbor". I need to be sneaky to snap a pic of him without him completely freaking out and going ballistic. He's been cranky since the day we moved in. More on that later.

When you pray for guidance and protection

this is what you may get if you snap a photo right after. Three of the kids will be baptized this Saturday so we've been praying for guidance and protection for all of them. We thought it was interesting that this pic showed up with someone standing or sitting directly above and behind our oldest daughter.

Do we know for sure what this is in the pic? No.
Do we think it's interesting anyway? You bet!

ETA: The pic quality if fuzzy because it's a photo taken off a cell phone. Just a little FYI. Cheers!

Reflections

I'm just taking my time and reflecting on the last couple of months. Our family has been thoroughly chewed up and spit back out. There are many gory details but I'm tired and my pain meds make my mind furry and unresponsive. Yeah, spelling is a huge hurdle today. I'll be back later when I'm normal. Assuming that "normal" ever happens for me again.

Mission Accomplished: The Surgery Is Over!

WHEW! That was stressful, but we're glad it's done. After lots of prayers Nye had his oral surgery this morning and it went well.





Daddy holding Nye early this morning before we walked across the parking lot from the hotel to the surgical hospital. We arrived at 6:30 am.




Nye is waiting for the nurse to come take him back to the O.R.




This is Nye in the Phase I Recovery Room. He hasn't yet opened his eyes, so we wait for him to wake up.




This is how the hospital staff outfitted Snugglepottamus as he accompanied Nye into surgery.




Nye is awake and in Phase II Recovery. This is right before his I.V. was removed and he was allowed to leave. We were done by 11:00 am and checked out of the hotel and on our way!

Wandering Near and Far

In the last week or so we've been exploring museums. Just yesterday we saw an Egyptian mummy in her coffin at the W. H. Over Museum. Our new favorite is the Dakota History Museum where we can visit an old train station and caboose car. Here are some photos from the last visit we made.

Sometimes It Pays To Go Late...

to yard sales. Last weekend my mom and I stopped at a sale that looked like it was being packed up. We were late leaving the house last saturday so only stopped at one sale. The dresser has 5 drawers and was marked $40. I was making noises about wanting it so mom offered $20 and they said they'd take $25. Good enough for me! We struck the deal and they even helped us load it up into the mini-van. Help loading it was worth the extra $5, don't you think?? I sure do! This thing is really tall, too. This will be painted put into the bathroom for storage. I think.

Oh yeah, about the sombrero... This is a hat my kids wear while they weave about drunkenly on their bicycles up and down the driveway. I'm not allowed to re-home it so I am constantly trying to find a place to put it. This is why and how it's in this pic of the dresser. (sigh)

My Thrifty Bird Flock

This mirror was one of those ugly gold atrocities that can be found in every thrift store in America. A little spray paint by the Hubs and it's magically transformed into an Elle Decor-esque wall accessory. Not too bad for a dollar, is it?




This little flock of 6 birds will be painted but I can't quite settle on what color they should be. I'm leaning toward black so they can flutter around my mirror from above.



Continuing with the bird theme, this pair will be probably be painted as well. Again, maybe black but we'll have to see.



This mirror was made out of an old barn window. I picked this up at a yard sale this last saturday. I also found a kitchen aid mixer here for $5. An investment of $25 will make the mixer complete. The mixer is my awesome find of the week! I'm not sure what I'll do with the mixer as I already have a Cobalt Blue Kitchen Aid. Maybe I'll ebay it?



This little 2 drawer dresser was only $20 at a yard sale. I also found a little pedestal occasional table for $3 at the same sale. I couldn't believe how inexpensive the furniture was. I love finds like this, I really do!


I know I'm late to the party but I can't help wanting to share my finds with everyone over at Rhoda's blog. Her participants for Thrifty Treasures is really growing and it's no wonder as fun as it is!

On My Mind Today

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.

―Bern Williams

I love this quote! There is nothing better than a June evening spent watching the fireflies while you cuddle with someone special. Nope, nothing better in the whole wide world.

Wish You Were Here!

One of our very favorite places to visit for the day is Eureka Springs. I just never get tired of wandering the Historic District. The pics below were all taken while we wandered down Spring Street on a rainy Mother's Day weekend.




I just love the look of moss and trailing vines. It's even better in a giant concrete urn with some wrought iron fencing in the background. This was taken at one of the grottoes where the springs bubble up to the surface.




Beautiful Grecian lady statue in a garden. Many of the gardens along Spring St. are at eye level atop retaining walls.




I don't have a name for these fleshy grape like plants, but I love how succulent they look dangling off the rock faces.




Because Eureka Springs is a such a funky place, it's easy to run across artsy things like this blue moon in a sidewalk.




This photo is of "The Dr's House". This house sits below the Crescent Hotel. See that amazing copper roof on the porch??

I have designs on spending a day here again soon. I feel the need for some picture taking and pizza nomming.

Sun Bleached Vintage Linens

I really love vintage linens. This set is missing Wednesday. I need to find her to complete the set. Wednesday, where are you??


This set has just been washed and hung in the sunshine. No, not to dry necessarily but to be bleached of some of the small yellow or brown stains that happen when fabric is stored for long periods of time. I've found nothing better than the sun for bleaching whites.

How to:
1.) Wash, as you usually would. I use laundry detergent and borax.
2.) When done washing, hang outside in the bright sunshine.
3.)When dry, marvel at their brightness.

PS,
Try this with tomato sauce stains, too.

Sunday Breakfast

As soon as we woke up this morning, we knew we needed a good breakfast. My youngest daughter isn't feeling well today. I suspect that yesterday was too much activity on too little rest for her. We need to remember to live normally, but go easy. Ok, Mom has made a mental note to remember that.

Our garage sale went very well. I didn't even place a paid advert in the classifieds this time and still had pretty good traffic. It's better with the advert, but I can't complain about the results because they were good! Several neighbors stopped by to chat, then browsed and then re-homed our treasures. We quit by 11 am and went out for lunch while we waited for daddy to get off work.

Now that our backyard is cleared of unused items, we can commence the planning of our make-over. I have my eye on some real vintage wicker furniture with a simple shape that would look good viewed from inside the house as well as out in addition to being comfy and useful. That's a beautiful situation all the way around!

My Own Garage Sale Purge

I am in the middle of clearing out our living space. The garage sale I'm setting up for tomorrow morning is proof that I am ready to clear the slate! Homes feel better when you've whittled down all the excess baggage. I've been looking forward to lightening the load and making changes. There is one major reason why most of this stuff can't stay. It's because I am holding myself to "Love It Or Ditch It" and I don't love any of this stuff so much that I need it clogging up my house and/or yard. (I've decided not to wait to have the backyard I crave. There is no time like the present!)

I do have guidelines to this rule, however. The rule doesn't mean that I get to keep stuff I love even if it's stuffed into the back of a closet. If it's in a closet stashed away, then I'm not loving it, am I? My mental rules go something like this:

1.) Items must be used frequently.

2.) Item must make me/us happy.

3.) If item has been forgotten for a time, then it must be re-evaluated.

If I only drag it out for a holiday then I can probably let it go. Other then the need for new dinnerware, I've pretty much gotten my kitchen whittled down to the items I use most. I love opening my cupboard doors and not have a ton of plastic sippy cups rain down on me. Life is good.

Additional Inspirations

I've just updated the blog roll over there on the left to include a couple more sources of inspiration. One of my new favs is called Down To Earth and I really believe the blog owner is a down to earth lady. She's a wonderful influence for those people like me who want to learn how to do things for ourselves.

Beach Vintage just makes me drool. I'd be ever so comfortable lounging in any of the rooms featured on that blog. Heck, even hunting for some of the treasures pictured there makes my heart beat a little faster in anticipation of the hunt!

Feel free to browse through Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op and Small Notebook.

Auction Treasure

Last weekend I was at the auction gallery again. This particular auction can run quite late, 1 a.m. is fairly typical. Two weeks ago I saw this blue enameled lamp on a table just waiting it's turn to be auctioned. It didn't come up 2 weekends ago and I forgot about it until this last weekend when I saw it again. Friday night was my night for winning bids because that lamp finally came up. I had a little fight for it, but I won it for $10! It's perfect for the bedroom and a particular bed I made a post about a few weeks back. I have so much fun hunting down the room particulars piece by piece. Slowly it's all coming together. The shade is one I cannibalized from a set of buffet lamps, but I think it works ok with this blue one.

What else did I bring home?? Well lets see...there was all the Pampered Chef kitchen stuff. You know, batter bowls, strainers, measuring cups etc. I also brought home the cutest little Duncan Phyfe (or Fife) dresser. I love the serpantine drawer fronts on these dressers! Oh, you know there was also several pieces at this auction of Heywood Wakefield furniture that sold for way cheap. Unfortunately that Mid-Century Modern look isn't me or I'd have bought it myself. It's amazing how auctions are an under utilized resource. You don't know what you're missing! Get on over to Auction Zip.com and check to see what's going in your area. Pack a lunch and make a day of the ultimate in recycling!